Mike Lascarides honored with renaming of Millville Industrial Park South for past service as economic development director

View full sizeCindy Hepner/The NewsCommissioner Jim Quinn commends Mike Lascarides for his contributions to Millville as the city's long-time economic development director. The Industrial Park South was renamed Thursday in honor of Lascarides.

MILLVILLE — The city expressed their thanks to the man who pioneered economic development in the Holly City by renaming an industrial park that he helped develop.

Mayor Tim Shannon, along with former mayor Jim Quinn, now director of public affairs, welcomed city officials and community members to the unveiling of the newly renamed Mike Lascarides Industrial Park, formerly Millville’s Industrial Park South.

Lascarides, who attended the event and thanked those who honored him endlessly, was the first economic director in Millville, and according to former Senator Jim Hurley, one of the first in the state.

“This comes as well-deserved and long awaited,” said Quinn during the unveiling event Thursday afternoon.

Quinn commended Lascarides for taking his sports ethic from when he played basketball, varsity football and tennis for Millville High School in the 1950s, and applying it to his work in the city.

“At the time he went into economic development, it was an unknown field,” Quinn said. “Mike (Lascarides) wrote the book on economic development.”

Lascarides began in city government in 1955 as the assistant city engineer, a year after he graduated from Millville High School. He then took over as the assistant city tax assessor in 1958, then tax assessor in 1961.

But it wasn’t until 1971 that Lascarides began to delve into economic development, first joining the city’s Industrial Development Commission.

Quinn worked in country government as the freeholder director during Lascarides time as economic development director, and thanked him for keeping the county in mind.

“He left in 1996, a year before I joined the city commission, but when he brought in ratables, it was not only good for the city but also for the county,” Quinn said. “We all benefit from the legacy he left for us all to enjoy.”

Due to the extreme heat at the unveiling Thursday, the second part of the ceremony was held at the Thunderbolt Club where Jim Hurley and Kim Warker-Ayres expressed their memories and sentiments.

Instead of using a formal speech, Hurley pulled topics — which he felt best described Lascarides — out of an ornate bucket.

The first topic: “Hard work.”

“Mike began working when he was 13 years old,” Hurley said. “He washed milk bottles — they put milk in glass bottles back then — for my father-in-law. He never stopped working since.”

The second topic: “Athlete.”

“I’ll never forget when I got to high school, our long-time football coach John Barbose raving about Mike Lascarides.”

View full sizeCindy Hepner/The NewsThe new sign at the entrance of Industrial Park South with now is renamed Mike Lascarides Industrial Park. A formal Dedication Ceremony of the Mike Lascarides Industrial Park in the City of Millville was held Thursday June 21,2012. The new sign was unveiled by Melissa Selesky (left), Michele Curio (second from left), Kris Christensen (third from left) and Michael Lascarides (right).

Hurley recalled one story when former N.J. Gov. Brendan Byrne announced he would travel down to Millville to challenge Lascarides in a tennis match.

“You know what happened? The governor did not show,” Hurley said. “Mike won by intimidation.”

The third topic Hurley pulled was “economic development,” which culminated the previous topics into how Lascarides affected Millville.

Hurley called Lascarides the “pioneer of economic development in New Jersey,” with bringing French manufacturer Durand Glass to Millville as “his biggest coups.”

He also praised Lascarides on his laying the groundwork for the joint Vineland-Millville Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ).

“He understood the transforming affect of the UEZ on the two communities,” Hurley said.

“Since he thought big, Millville is a better community today,” Hurley concluded.

Lascarides’s long-time employee and friend Dr. Kim Warker-Ayres, former city planning director, also expressed her gratitude for having worked with Lascarides since the mid-1980s.

“We often called him the ‘sixth commissioner’ because he knew how to make things happen,” Warker-Ayres said.

Warker-Ayres recalled his secret to success: “He was the master of schmooze,” garnering laughter among the crowd.

She continued: “He would track someone down, bring them to his office, get them coffee and make them feel comfortable, then promise them the impossible. Then he would tell them they could work out the details later — which is where Don (Ayres) and I came in,” raising even more laughter from the crowd.

“There were times where we said, ‘we can’t do that.’ But somehow it all worked out,” Warker-Ayres said. “His secret was building those relationships. He treated everyone the same: from the janitorial staff to the commissioners, he made us all feel equally important.

Warker-Ayres praised Lascarides for his career, bringing in Durand Glass and developing the Maurice River property in the downtown area.

Ayres concluded, “He was the most influential person in my career, and simultaneously the most influential for development in the city of Millville.”